noun

/naʊn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Multicultural London English/nɒ(ʊ)n/

noun noun: a word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea: one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English.

Noun

noun (plural nouns)

(strictly) A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea: one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English.
- Records have been broken, races have been dedicated, dreams have been dreamed, starts have been falsed and nouns have been verbed.2011 September 1, Harry Pearson, “London 2012 can legacy by verbing the noun”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Sep 2024
- Communication is a kind of beauty, he said – and “beauty manifests itself from the noun itself, without strawberries on the cake.”2019 September 24, Jessie Yeung, quoting Pope Francis, “Pope Francis loves nouns but is ‘allergic’ to adjectives”, in CNN, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2019
(archaic, broadly) Either a word that can be used to refer to a person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality or idea, or a word that modifies or describes a previous word or its referent; a substantive or adjective, sometimes also including other parts of speech such as numeral or pronoun.
- Q. What is a Noun? A. The Name of a Thing. Q. How many Sorts of Nouns are there? [...] A. A Noun Substantive, and a Noun Adjective.1753, Thomas Martin, An Explanation of the Accidence and Grammar To the End of the Syntax in which The Grounds of each Rule in the Syntax are laid down in the plainest Manner. Compiled By way of...
- A Noun is a word which serves to name and distinguish some thing; [...]. There are two sorts of nouns; one is called a noun substantive, and the other a noun adjective.1786, Signor Veneroni, The Complete Italian Master; Containing The best and easiest Rules for attaining that Language, London, page 6
An object within a user interface to which a certain action or transformation (i.e., verb) is applied.
- Nouns are the data; verbs are the data transformations, and therefore verbs represent much of the complexity of systems.1992, Brad A. Myers, David C. Smith, Bruce Horn, chapter 19, in Languages for Developing User Interfaces
- You choose either (1) the verb (change font) first and then select the noun (the paragraph) to which the verb should apply or (2) the noun first and then apply the verb.2000, Jeff Raskin, The Humane Interface, page 59

Verb

noun (third-person singular simple present nouns, present participle nouning, simple past and past participle nouned)

(transitive) To convert a word to a noun.
- What is not clear is how the nouning of verbs supports Simon's assumed correspondence between mechanical designing and intentional human responses. Is it the very nouning of verbs which indicates that the above correspondence exists?1974, The Modern Schoolman, page 144
- For example, that females are different from but equal to males is oxymoronic by virtue of the nouned status of female and male as kinds of persons.1992, Lewis Acrelius Froman, Language and Power: Books III, IV, and V

Proper noun capitalized: Noun

Noun

A department of the West Region, Cameroon.

noun meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

noun in Hindi

grammatical category (narrow sense): संज्ञा saṅgyā
grammatical category (broad sense): नाम nām

noun in Tamil

grammatical category (narrow sense): பெயர்ச்சொல் peyarccol, பெயர் peyar
grammatical category (broad sense): பெயர்ச்சொல் peyarccol, பெயர் peyar

noun in Marathi

grammatical category (narrow sense): नाम nām

noun in Urdu

grammatical category (narrow sense): اِسْم ism, نام nām

More languagesFewer languages

noun in Bengali: বিশেষ্য biśeśśo
noun in Telugu: నామవాచకము nāmavācakamu
noun in Malayalam: നാമം nāmaṁ
noun in Kannada: ನಾಮಪದ nāmapada
noun in Punjabi: ਨਾਂਵ nā̃v, شَے śai, نان٘وَ nāṉva
noun in Gujarati: સંજ્ઞા sañjñā
noun in Odia: ବିଶେଷ୍ୟ biśeṣya
noun in Sanskrit: नामन् nā́man, नाम nāma
noun in Sinhala: නාම පදය nāma padaya, නාමය nāmaya
noun in Assamese: বিশেষ্য পদ bixeisso pod, বিশেষ্য bixeisso
noun in Nepali: नाम nām
noun in Pashto: اسم esm, نوم num
noun in Tagalog: pangngalan
noun in Arabic: اِسْم الذَّات ism aḏ-ḏāt, اِسْم ism
noun in Malay: kata nama, kata bilang
noun in Indonesian: kata benda, nomina, kata nama, substantif
noun in Persian: نام nām
noun in Thai: นาม naam, คำนาม naam
noun in Vietnamese: danh từ
noun in Myanmar: နာမ် nam
Kashmiri: ناوُت nāvut, नावुत nāwut

Examples of noun in a sentence

The first part of a compound word is either a noun (substantive, adjective, or numeral), an adverb, or a preposition, and in a very few cases a verb.1852, Leonhard Schmitz, Elementary Latin grammar, Edinburgh, page 123:
In this Grammar noun is used to include both the substantive and the adjective.1956, Herbert Weir Smyth, Gordon M. Messing, “189. Parts of Speech”, in Greek Grammar, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, page 44:
The Parts of Speech are the Noun (Substantive and Adjective), the Pronoun, the Verb, and the Particles (Adverb, Preposition, and Conjunction)[.]1894, B. L. Gildersleeve, G. Lodge, Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar, Dover, published 2008, page 9:
Thus, in essence, the mouse provides a capability for picking among a set of nouns (for instance, the file to which to apply some action) and verbs (such as "edit" or "insert")2005, Barbara J. Grosz, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, volume 149, number 4:

All 40 example sentences with noun

Synonyms of noun

All synonyms of noun

Forms of noun

Noun
plural	nouns
Verb
third-person singular present	nouns
present participle	nouning
past participle	nouned
past	nouned

Plural of noun: nouns

Origin of noun

Inherited from Middle English noun, from Anglo-Norman noun, non, nom, from Latin nōmen (“name; noun”). The grammatical sense in Latin was a semantic loan from Koine Greek ὄνομα (ónoma). Doublet of name and nomen.

Phrases with noun

17 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with noun

19 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about noun

What does noun mean?: Noun means a word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea: one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English.
What is noun in Hindi?: Noun in Hindi is संज्ञा (saṅgyā), नाम (nām). See Noun meaning in Hindi.
How do you use noun in a sentence?: The first part of a compound word is either a noun (substantive, adjective, or numeral), an adverb, or a preposition, and in a very few cases a verb.
What part of speech is noun?: Noun can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce noun?: Noun is pronounced /naʊn/ (UK).
What is the plural of noun?: The plural of noun is nouns.

Words near noun in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: noun (page history and authors); Noun (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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Cite this entry: “noun.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/noun. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.